•The paper tests a new framework for explaining social transfers through analysis of eight sub-Saharan African countries.•The paper examines the ‘institutionalization’ of social transfers, and offers ...a new index for assessing this.•Social transfer institutionalization results from political survival strategies and transnational policy coalitions.•Either policy coalitions steer governments towards adoption, before competitive elections drive institutionalisation.•Or elites respond to perceived distributional crises, augmented by external support.
The new phase of social protection expansion in the global south remains poorly understood. Current interpretations of the spread of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa tend to emphasize the influence of elections and donor pressure, often by drawing correlations from statistical data, and focusing on the moment of programme adoption. This study adopts a different approach that traces the actual process through which countries have not just adopted but institutionalized social transfers. We test a new theoretical framework through within and cross-case analysis of the degree to which social protection programmes have become institutionalized in eight African countries. Two main pathways emerge: the first confirms the sense that both donors and elections matter, but goes further in showing the particular ways in which these drivers combine. In particular, transnational policy coalitions tend to play a leading role in adoption, whereas governments pursue the further institutionalization of social transfers as a top-down response to competitive elections. However, we also identify an alternative pathway that involves electorally uncompetitive countries; here, the primary motivation is not elections but elite perceptions of vulnerability in the face of distributional crises, augmented by ideas and resources from transnational policy coalitions. Consequently, the latest phase of social transfer development results from the interplay of political survival strategies and transnational policy coalitions.
•Participation in public works increase the probability that farmers adopt resource intensive climate-smart agricultural practices.•The standalone impacts of CSA practices vary depending on the ...practice, the duration of its adoption, and prevailing rainfall conditions.•Sustained adoption of soil water conservation structures in combination with public works participation improves impacts.•Integrating social protection support with the promotion of CSA will help to advance the CSA agenda.
This article assesses the interactions between participation in Malawi’s largest public works programme, the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), and three widely promoted climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Drawing on three waves of national panel household survey data, we find that participation in MASAF significantly increases the probability that farm households adopt the resource intensive CSA practices of building soil water conservation structures and applying organic fertilizers. Moreover, participation in MASAF contributes to a sustained adoption of these practices over multiple agricultural seasons. We empirically demonstrate that the standalone impact of the CSA practices on maize productivity and the value of crops harvested under normal and dry conditions is, in most cases, not significantly different from zero. However, we find a reduction in sensitivity to low precipitation when MASAF participation occurs in the previous agricultural season. Moreover, the joint treatment effect of MASAF participation with sustained adoption of soil water conservation structures substantially increases households’ productivity and welfare. This synergistic benefit is likely driven by the transfer of skills learned during MASAF public works to farmers’ own fields. Results suggest that the CSA agenda can be enhanced by explicitly integrating existing social protection interventions with the promotion of CSA practices.
For social protection policies to be inclusive they must address the extra costs that people with disabilities incur. Studies show that these costs are highly significant and if not taken into ...account the economic wellbeing of people with disabilities is underestimated. Additionally, disability costs vary significantly by the type and degree of disability. To align the structure of social protection programs with how costs are incurred to promote equal participation requires estimating those costs. The Goods and Services Required approach, it is argued, is better than the often used Standard of Living Approach, and has implications for policy design.
The concept of the ‘social investment state’ refocuses attention on the productive function of social policy eclipsed for some time by the emphasis on its social protection or compensation roles. ...Here we distinguish between different social investment strategies, the Nordic ‘heavy’ and the Liberal ‘light’, with particular reference to the inclusive growth approach adopted in Australia. In 2007, social democrats in Australia returned to government with a clear mandate to reject the labour market deregulation and other neoliberal policies of its predecessor, and to tackle entrenched social and economic disadvantage in Australian society. For the last five years, social investment and inclusive growth has been at the centre of the Australian social policy agenda. Against this background, the article examines and critically assesses the (re)turn to ‘social investment’ thinking in Australia during Labor's term in office (2007–13). Analysis focuses not just on what was actually achieved, but also on the constraining role of prevailing economic and political circumstances and on the processes that were used to drive social investment reform. In many ways, the article goes some way to exposing ongoing tensions surrounding the distinctiveness of ‘social investment’ strategies pursued by leftist parties within the (neo)liberal state.
There is a complex interaction between infectious diseases and child nutritional status as infections usually entail some nutritional setback and vice versa. Therefore, vaccination against childhood ...infectious diseases is an important preventive measure against malnutrition itself, playing a key role in reducing child mortality. However, whereas referring to vaccination coverage it is crucial to have it clear how this coverage is measured, once it may vary considerably depending on the source of information. While child vaccination status is obtained from medical records in developed countries, in developing countries, they are mostly taken from vaccination cards and/or mothers’ reports. Nevertheless, some researchers have come to diverse conclusions in terms of the accuracy of parents’ reports. Based on a rich longitudinal household survey available for Yemen collected in 2012 – 2013, we find that although mothers’ reports should not be discarded when estimating vaccination coverage (otherwise, coverage would be extremely overestimated), this information should be used with caution.
Abstract
While Zimbabwe shares similar characteristics with other sub-Saharan countries that are generally regarded as “young populations,” the percentage of older adults has increased from 4.7% in ...1982 to 6% in 2017. Research on aging is mainly on social protection, health, and quality of life. Emerging research points toward healthy aging, gender relations, and access to resources. The economic environment has been unstable for the greater part of the 41 years of independence. Poverty is increasing and the lives of older adults are vulnerable owing to inadequate and poorly targeted and funded social safety nets and social care services. The framework for addressing aging in the country is adequate but implementation is lacking. Zimbabwe lacks longitudinal data sets on aging; researchers mostly rely on data produced by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, United Nations agencies, and other international nongovernmental organizations.
I discuss a new approach which decomposes inequality into the contributions of population groups by income sources. I estimate a matrix with rows and columns which indicate different population ...groups and income sources, respectively, with each element indicating the marginal change in the inequality contribution of a group (as measured by the Recentered Influence Function) when an income source is added and with all contributions adding up to overall inequality. The approach can be used to analyze the contributions of groups and sources to the trend in inequality over time (or between distributions), disentangling the effect of changes in the composition of the population by groups and changes in their income distribution by sources. An empirical application characterizes the distributional change in Spain following the Great Recession, highlighting the disequalizing role of the massive increase in unemployment or the equalizing effect of social protection through different population groups.
This article investigates the transformative potential of the Next Generation EU (NG‐EU) initiative in social protection taking South European (SE) countries as a test case. It starts with a brief ...examination of the main social parameters of the EPSR and how these intertwine with the NG‐EU strategy that links recovery from the pandemic with the EU's long‐term green and digital transition objectives. This is followed by a comparative overview of the SE countries' social, green and digital outlook when embarking upon the recovery path. In light of these, the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) of the four countries are scrutinised vis‐à‐vis the NG‐EU specified priority flagship areas. The political background of the plans, the impact of the EPSR on their policy options, and their recalibration potential are comparatively analysed. In setting the course for a twin transition, all four plans share a focus on addressing long‐standing social challenges mainly by bolstering productive welfare measures. But path‐dependent differences in policy mixes and varying policy integration can weigh significantly on outcomes.
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